The Halls

Well I've completed a whole half term and only had one day off!!! After having almost 12 months off work, that's amazing. I've enjoyed the 1/2 term holiday, but used it to recharge my batteries. As you can see, I've not had much time to keep the blog updated. There's a few new recipes coming shortly and I'll add some more photos ASAP.

Elaine

http://www.31castlegate.co.uk/

We went to 31 Castlegate in York to celebrate Trevor's birthday and were suitably impressed. The place was fairly small, but pleasantly decorated. It was busy, but not too much. We could only have the table for 2 hours; although 2 hours was fine in one respect, I felt that the food was served too quickly (I would have liked a little longer between courses if I was given the option).

We went early evening to take advantage of the meal-deal (2 courses for £13.95). I had feta cheese salad and then chicken breast stuffed with Brie and sun dried tomatoes. I loved the starter, right up my street! Trevor had pork in sesame seeds followed by seabass. He said it was nice and light, with good flavours and would recommend it. As you can tell from the lack of enthusiasm from me I didn't enjoy mine as much as he did, but I'm not saying the food was poor, I just wished I had the fish!!!! But I wanted to try something a little different; I'll stick to fish next time.

We had a great wine with the meal (which cost almost as much as the 2 meals together); a Bordeaux. It was smooth, but fruity.

We would recommend this restaurant if you visit York!

We've been on this diet a week now (don't worry... I'm not dieting, just enjoying the food and topping up with extra calories) and so far so good; the man himself has lost 1/2 stone (he put very little on whilst we were away, I hasten to add). We aren't sticking to the diet totally, but it's made us look carefully at food calorie contents, soooo it's dead easy.

As ever with Hairy Biker recipes, there are a lot of ingredients; although they tend to be the same (onions, carrots, celery), it takes forever to chop, but once done the recipes are easy and have lots of flavour. I've not liked anything I've tried (wasn't sure you could call the lasagne lasgne without the pasta), but obviously there are recipes I like better than others. I would recommend the cottage pie. It's a simple recipe, but uses leeks (another staple ingredient) in the topping.

Right now, I'm making pies. YES, pies!!! And hopefully I'm going to make some buns later.

It's going to be tricky feeding Trevor whilst he's marshalling, but I'm hoping that as long as he's sensible he won't put weight on, even if he doesn't loose anything.

Elaine

http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Hairy-Dieters-Love-Weight/dp/0297869051/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1345709585&sr=8-1

Yesterday saw us queue up for 35 mins in order to sample Rick's infamous fish and chips. I had children's fish gougons, whilst Trevor had good old cod. Both lots of fish were delicious, Trev says his was even better than Kongs!!!! I thought the chips weren't so good - lots of brown ones - but I didn't eat many chips anyway. Was it worth the wait... Yes, it was! The price was more than our local chippy (£8 ish for fish and chips), but that appears to be the going rate in Padstow. There is a variety of fish choice, salads and drinks (including a glass of wine), but I thought 35p for ketchup was a bit too much. You have to queue to order then wait whilst the order is made up (which is a shorter wait, about 15 mins).

There is the option to eat-in, but the queue was huge and not one group went in whilst we were waiting.

Funnily enough, the queue was far shorter on Saturday evening when we passed on our way to Paul's, for both the take away and restaurant.

Elaine

Today we had lunch at Nathan's place. The food was very good and lived up to its 2 Michelin Stars. I have to say the service lacked the usual Michelin Star sparkle, simple things like we weren't told what was on the plate and other tables were offered a jug of iced tap water (we paid for bottled!!). The restaurant was modern, but I thought the toilets also lacked Michelin Star quality (empty soap dispensers, cheap paper towels to dry hands on, etc); makes me wonder how often Michelin check up on these restaurants. But all that considered I would go back (the oysters were out of this world, the fish simply pan fried with the sauce in a side dish was deliciously light, but still tasty, and some of the best chips I've ever tasted).

Elaine

http://www.nathan-outlaw.com/nathan-outlaw-seafood-grill/seafood-grill-menu/

We went to No 6 to celebrate our 3rd wedding anniversary and it was a darn good choice! Loved it!!!! Paul doesn't need to worry about Rick Stein's domination of Padstow; his restaurant has it's own unique market. We would highly recommend this restaurant if you are in the area (worth travelling to too).

The restaurant is beautiful and the food amazing; we even bumped into the man himself wearing his chef's whites (I certainly don't think Rick Stein cooked for us yesterday, probably not even in the UK). Service was superb; the waiter was chatty and very knowledgable; Paul obviously has a good relationship with his staff.

The highlight of our meal has to be the 'trip to the fairground'. It was worth waiting over 12 months to try! Everything was light and tasty, I didn't not like anything and Trevor even ate the honeycomb. 

My only negative is that it's not closer to home!!! 

Elaine

http://number6inpadstow.co.uk/

Sorry photo is soooo dark, not enough light to take a decent photo.

Padstow could easily be renamed Padstein, there's everything here with the name Rick Stein on - Seafood Restaurant, cafe, deli, even a gift shop (amongst just a few). We decided to eat at St Petroc as we aren't big seafood lovers. The meal was delicious and reasonably priced. Portion sizes were pretty good, we left after two courses feeling full but not bloated. We would certainly recommend it. The only negative was that they ran out of orange juice and had to run to the Seafood Restaurant to get some.

Elaine

http://www.rickstein.com/St-Petrocs-Bistro.html

I'll posted photos ASAP 

Today was our second visit to The Three Fishes. Once again the food and service was outstanding. We had a meal deal (2 courses for £11.50), although we did set out to have a sandwich  We both had the same main (veal sausage, mash and onion sauce, basically), but it was the dessert that got us going. I can't remember names but mine was like a panacotta with passion fruit sauce and blueberries, whilst Trevor had orange and almond cake with mascarpone cream, both delicious (and I usually go for a starter and main)!!! It won't be our last visit now I know it's close to where Ryan plays his home matches.

Elaine

http://www.thethreefishes.com/

PS I'll add photos ASAP 

Tried a new recipe out. Turned out really well, but need to fiddle with it to get it just right. Getting fed up with my oven now, I really need a new one as things keep catching. Today is a cupcake day, I'm thinking. Gonna make a selection for my OU tutorial tomorrow. Mmmm.. Thinking elder flower and lavender, as well as the faithful chocolate ones. 

Watch out for Great British Bake Off (GBBO) starting 14th August. 

Elaine

Update

New biscuits now been named Crumbly Jammy Nibbles